Going Back to the Camp

The next day, we walked to the post office to pick up the new batch of international ingredients. Then, I spent the entire day cooped up in the room experimenting. Sazzy had left the room midway through, claiming that she was going to the toilet. But we both knew that was a lie.

Stretching in front of the table, I typed the results of several combinations and erased some of the ingredients from the list. It was currently evening, and Sazzy had been gone for the majority of the day. Cleaning up the dishes, I laid down on the bed in peace.

In the morning, I had offered Sazzy a taste test of some of the more successful experiments. It was a hint to her that I knew she wasn't telling me everything. She had declined somewhat awkwardly and had quickly excused herself from the room. At this rate, Sazzy would probably never answer my questions if I never directly ask them to her.

Another sort of hint I had been giving her was when I started describing the taste of the dishes as I gave them to her. I started this during our break back at Mors. She had a startled and panicked look on her face, and avoided my eyes for the next few days. However the tension had now returned back to normal.

Even though both of us knew deep down that there was some explaining to do.

Sazzy was obviously not of this world, that was obvious. She could transmigrate someone from one world to the next. However, that didn't explain why she was so hooked on food, even though she could not taste them. Why she could sometimes touch objects like the time she helped bring me my luggage at Aquarius, but her 'sneaking' some soup to 'taste' didn't even leave a ripple on the pot.

Why was she so contradictory?

I wanted to wait until she was comfortable to come out and talk about all this, but based on her attitude, she would rather treat this as if it never existed.

Even though there were now cameras placed outside our house in Mors. Could she not become visible? What were the limits of her powers? If she could send someone to another world why couldn't she change herself to become more convenient to live in this world?

There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but the person in question didn't seem to want to answer them.

Sighing as all the thoughts swirled up in my head like soup, I closed my eyes and tried to empty my brain. And soon I could feel myself drift off to sleep.

When I woke up the next day, Sazzy had reappeared back in the room. She was packing my belongings into the backpack.

As she turned her head, she noticed I was awake and shouted in a voice that seemed to pierce my ears.

"Good morning Alex! I've packed your bags already so we just need to collect your new batch of ingredients and then we can leave!"

Grabbing my hand, she pulled me up from the bed and led me to the door. Opening the door, I met a surprised look from Tim who was about to knock on the door.

Putting down his raised fists, he awkwardly looked away from me and mumbled that Josh was looking for me.

I felt something touch my hands and looked down to see Sazzy patting my hand to reassure me. To let me know she was here to help if I needed it.

Taking a deep breath, I put my most sincere smile on my face and dug around in my pocket for the carving. Then, I passed it back to him as smoothly as I could.

"I'm sorry for asking for this. My only excuse was that I was dense and didn't realize, but even still it was my fault to ask Josh to carve this. Here, I'll return it to you."

Avoiding his eyes, I tried my best to sound apologetic while not letting my embarrassment overtake me. It was hard, and I could feel the tip of my ears starting to heat up.

There was a very heavy silence between us before Tim gave an obviously relieved laugh and held my hand in his.

"Please don't look away. Thanks for apologizing. Admittedly, I was quite shocked when you asked for a wood carving of my planet's mother tree that day. Josh and I also talked a lot after that. And we did agree to give you an identical wood carving. Thanks for clearing things up though."

Hugging the wood carving with a strength that betrayed his words, I apologized once more, and the two of us buried the hatchet with a tight hug.

"To be honest, I thought you had your eyes on Josh when you asked for the carving. In fact, the reason why I'm here is to declare that he's my man and you would have to look for another guy."

Tim joked as we parted from the hug. Seeing the energetic grin return to his face, I myself let out a sigh of relief, and I smiled back at him.

After talking for a little while, Tim stored the wood carving into his bag and gave a very exaggerated pose with his hands blocking his mouth.

"We aren't public with our relationship at the camp yet, although I think some of the more sensitive ones already know. And we definitely do not want to publicize our relationship online. Not yet."

Winking at me, Tim then waved goodbye. But before he fully left, he stopped as if he had forgotten something.

"Ah right! In about 1 hour Josh will be waiting near the lockers to pick you up to go for some ingredient gathering before heading back to the camp. The rest of the camp members will be coming back at different times so it will be the three of us only."

He waved goodbye once more and properly left the area. Closing the door, I faced Sazzy who had a cheshire grin on her face.

"Thank you."

Once the heartfelt moment was over, the two of us moved around the room with purpose. Picking up the packed backpack, the two of us headed to the post office to pick up the ingredients. Carrying the packages to the front of the lockers, I placed the backpack down and opened the lockers. We then sorted out what we needed and left the rest in the lockers.

With a final trip around the stores to check if we missed anything, as well as to converse with the store owners who were bored to death looking after empty stores, we circled back to the lockers just in time for Josh and Tim to enter from the right side of the AT center.

Seeing me, Tim raised his hands in a large wave while Josh just gave a polite nod of his head. Joining up with the two of them, we left the barrier and the AT center behind us and headed to several spots that were different from last time.

For every gathering spot, Josh seemed to be leading us to different routes, such that there was not a single route that I was familiar with.

A short distance after our gathering spot for the cocoa bark, we met a group of Lupos who seemed very unfamiliar to me. At the sight of each other, the head of the group and Josh bowed heads to each other and spoke in a language that I could not understand. Then, after a short while, they nodded again and we parted ways with the group.

"That group just now was from the more northern part of the Avis territory. It was their camp's moving time so they will be moving to another camp in the next couple of days."

Josh announced to us, or rather more to Tim, since I didn't fully understand what he was saying.

"Next week, our camp will be moving southwards as well. We haven't discussed the date yet, but according to the camp leader I just spoke with, it should be about the middle of the week."

Tim saw my confused look and kindly explained what Josh was talking about.

"The Lupos live on predator territory, usually the Avis' territory, which is how we ensure our safety. However, there are certain migratory predators that tend to pass through Avis territory that we either cannot converse with, or continue to see us as prey. So every once in a while, the camps north will start a downward trend of shifting more south to avoid the migratory routes of these predators. And our camp is one of them."

The camp names and locations were most definitely confidential, so I didn't bother to ask about that. But how were they going to move me with their camp if they didn't want me to know the location of the new camp.

"Easy," Josh smiled with a crafty grin. "The other camp members will move as planned, while a few of us will stay back and help you. After we are done, then we will move to the new camp. Since the camp is around the area of the migratory route, but not in the middle, we should be able to make it in time. Worse case worse, we can use some of the food storage and replenish them before the move back."

Josh then turned his eyes directly towards me. He had a mischievous grin on his face.

"Your big stream should start around the middle of the moving period. Which is good since less people will be free enough to bother you.

I shot my head up at the mention of my stream. I guess they pay attention to my Chitter.

"When you feel you are ready, tell me so I can reserve the cooking area for you. If you start too early, you might have some unexpected real time audiences. It is a common hobby to watch cooking streams on this planet, since we can't import a lot of the ingredients here due to financial difficulties. You can say you are quite popular."

Josh shot me a teasing evil grin and I gave a groan of embarrassment.

[That's probably the reason why so many people have been so ready to talk to you and share so much.]

Sazzy analyzed as I wanted to bury myself into the ground.

"Quiet Sazzy. You're not helping!"

[Well at least it made your life easier!]

Sighing as I felt my face calm down, I accepted the fact that I wasn't exactly conducting my research into the culture incognito. And that so many people had seen me try to mix with them to learn more about them, and had quietly gone along with it.

Taking deep breaths, I calmed myself down more as we stopped at our next gathering spot, this time for some fruits, and focused my attention on the task ahead.